It’s the old adage in sports; defense wins championships. It’s been proven true in football and basketball, but in baseball? For the Boston Red Sox, check yes.

I mentioned in a recent article how team defensive efficiency has been the most telling stat in the Sox up-and-down performances the past few years. In fact, the last team to win the World Series outside of the top 15 in this stat was the 2003 Florida Marlins.

This season, the Red Sox finished with their worst rating (.679) since 1997 and it’s obvious why. They aged quickly at both catcher and third base, while their carousel at shortstop produced mixed results. At the trade deadline, they acquired Alex Gonzalez to help the defense, but it was too little too late.

All of this led the Red Sox to an early exit from the playoffs by the gloves of the Angels, who coincidentally ranked first in the majors in defense. In the midst of this defensive debacle stands Mike Lowell, a 35-year-old third baseman who can still hit, but injury problems have limited his range in the field.

Lowell faced constant back and hip problems, which limited his range significantly at third base. The injuries forced the one-time gold glove winner to play 12 games at DH with more to come in 2010 and beyond.

Possible Lowell Trade Scenarios

ESPN’s Jayson Stark has reported that the Red Sox could trade Lowell to two or three teams right now if they took a similar contract back. I took a quick look at MLBTradeRumors.com’s list of bad contracts and found two potential suitors that could match Lowell’s one-year, $12 million contract.

Kansas City Royals trade Jose Guillen (one-year, $12 mil) for Lowell and put him at DH for the 2010 season.

Both of these moves would give the Red Sox a fourth outfielder, which would put less pressure on them to overpay for Jason Bay or Matt Holliday. I’m not suggesting that they do these trades, it’s just pure speculation that they are two contracts that match up with Lowell’s.

Lowell’s Possible Replacement at Third?

It’s clear that the Red Sox don’t want to go into 2010 with just Lowell at third base so who could they possibly get to replace him?

My vote goes out to Adrian Beltre.

Beltre had one injury after another in 2009, which led to the worst season of his career. However from 2005-2008, Beltre averaged 151 games and hit .266 with an average of 24 home runs, 36 doubles and 88 runs batted in per season.

He played his home games at Safeco Field, which zaps righties of their power. In that span he also won two gold glove awards and has earned the reputation as one of the best defensive third basemen in the game.

His defense fits the Red Sox blueprint for success, which is play good defense and hit a decent ball. Beltre’s offensive numbers could be revived at Fenway where the “Green Monster” would be the recipient of many of his line drives due to his propensity to pull the ball, especially for power.

It’s clear that Lowell’s future is not with the Red Sox because they already have a DH in David Ortiz and a future DH in Victor Martinez. Beltre would not only help get this defense back to a championship level, but his bat would be a welcome addition to the bottom third of the order behind Ortiz and J.D. Drew.